Cailleach
The Cailleach appears primarily as a veiled old woman, sometimes with only one eye. Her skin is deathly pale or blue, while her teeth were red and her clothes adorned with skulls. She could leap across mountains and ride storms. The Cailleach is a shapeshifter capable of transforming into a giant bird.
The Veiled One is a creator deity that shaped much of the known landscape; whether she did so intentionally remains unclear. Her tools of creation and destruction included her hammer, with which she was able to control storms and thunder. In some legends, she also controls a well that would occasionally overflow and flood the land.
The Cailleach is neither fully good nor fully evil; her intentions varied from tale to tale. Through her association with storms and thunder, she is a natural and wild destructive force. Despite this, she also cares deeply for animals both wild and domestic during the dark winter months. She is the patron of wolves emboldened by winter hunger; in Scotland, she also served as a deer herder.
The Cailleach was both ageless and immortal; as winter gave way to spring, she would take a drought that returned her to youth. In some legends, she spends half the year as a young woman and the other half as a old crone—she was only known as the Cailleach during the latter half.
The Cailleach is also a goddess of grain, a key resource in surviving winter. The last sheath of grain harvested was dedicated to her, and used to begin the next planting season.
The Cailleach is linked to sovereignty and rulership.
